Put a microphone in front of Dennis Rodman and magical things are bound to happen. Like the Kamikaze song, an old ditty Rodman used to sing while he was at bars in Chicago.
He is also liable to say outrageous and sneakly perceptive things about today's NBA and the days of yesteryear.
Take Dan Patrick asking Rodman on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday about how LeBron James would fare if he had played in the 1980s and 1990s. Rodman scoffed a bit at that notion and said James probably would have been an "average player" and James takes advantage of the laxer, less physical rules in the NBA today.
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There is a fair point. The change in the NBA's hand-checking rules certainly have made a difference in James' play and how he developed as a player. If he grew up in the 80s and 90s, he would be a completely different player. Maybe there is some hyperbole there, James is still a very good player.
As to Jordan. Rodman said Michael Jordan would easily score 40 points per game with today's NBA rules. Jordan, after all, averaged more than 30.0 points per game for seven straight seasons WITH hand checking, including an astounding 37.1 per game in 1987.
Maybe we make too much of the hand checking distinction. . . or maybe we should stop comparing players from different eras and appreciate each as the best of his era.
At least Rodman is trying to set the record straight. It seems abundantly clear now that those 1990s Bulls would defeat the 2012 Heat.
Now, about that trip to North Korea. . .
